Sacrificing the EQ Bars???

[xenosomething]

ive been resuming work on my skins lately, and i have absolutely no desire to make any eq bars at all.

what should i do?


would it be that big a deal to have some cool looking graphics in place of those pesky bars?

most people only use the preset button to change the eq anyway, right?

i'll never be able to finish my skins if i have to make those frickin animations.

..how low would my skin be rated for its missing bars, anyway?

[Mr_Tough_Guy]

Unless you're making a picture skin where the EQ bars are covering up part of the pic, I'd definetly put them in, and even then I'd make two versions like I did on Rose Tattoo.

Personally I don't use the Eq much apart from the presets, but I won't download skins where the EQ is cropped out, to me it just feels like something is missing.

If you don't like animating the EQ bars, just screw the animation and make some simple bars without any animation

[Cleanup]

Mr_Wise_Guy.

[xenosomething]

Originally posted by Mr_Tough_Guy
Personally I don't use the Eq much apart from the presets, but I won't download skins where the EQ is cropped out, to me it just feels like something is missing

ok,but what if it looks really good?

and im not making any picture skins...so thats not the prob.

the area where the eq bars would be wont be empty or anything...it will be totally engulfed in very nice looking graphics.

ill start a "barless eq" right now to show you that i can make it look good without that feeling of missing something.

[Atmo]

My personal belief is that a skin should be as functional as possible. So i make a huge effort not to leave out parts of the skin because of the way it looks. If a minor part cant be done because of the design, then ok, but the eq is a major element. I sometimes can forgive the author for leaving them out if it's a pic skin, but i usually prefer a version with eq bars (as tough guy did with rose).

If you just wanna make pretty gfx, then why not make a wallpaper or something, where you have total freedom to do whatever you like?

[dam]

I agree with Atmo and Mr_Wise_Guy . A skin is incomplete without the eq bars. I wont use a skin without the eq bars. I actually use them.

BTW Atmo : Youre beginning to sound like wally .

[binary hero]

atmo is wally. the real atmo left, and wally took over his nick.

and i'm all for eq bars. cropped eq bars = no publishing @ winamp.com = bad

[flatmatt]

Originally posted by binary hero
and i'm all for eq bars. cropped eq bars = no publishing @ winamp.com = bad

Uhhhhhhhhhh... no?

[not in santiago]

I hardly ever use the eq bars. In fact I often hide the eq window, so I'm more concerned about the skin looking nice with just the Main and Playlist stuck together.

I don't mind if a skin doesn't have eq bars, as long as it's justified (i.e., the skin's design would ultimately suffer if the bars were left in). If you're doing it out of terminal laziness, well, that's another story.

I'd say make two Eq bitmaps, one without bars and one with straightforward, plain vanilla bars. Include both with the skin and let the user choose.

P.S. - I voted for "as long as you finish a skin, I don't care." You are going to finish a skin, aren't you?!

[binary hero]

Originally posted by flatmatt
Uhhhhhhhhhh... no?

uuuuuhhhhh, yes. no eq bars = no publish

FOR WINAMP 2:
If a skin has less than the 3 main components skinned, or is a skinner wonder and has the equalizer bars and/or cbuttons missing, it does not get published.

[Mr_Tough_Guy]

I thought only skinner.exe skins without EQ bars didn't get published

[Mr Jones]

Originally posted by Mr_Tough_Guy
I thought only skinner.exe skins without EQ bars didn't get published

You are correct, that's what this bit meant..

or is a skinner wonder and has the equalizer bars and/or cbuttons missing, it does not get published.

If it's skinner stuff, minus bars then no no, if it's regular skin work minus bars, then yes yes, albeit with functionality marked down a little.

[RandomCarpet]

the problem of unwanted eq-slidders cropping the eq and spoiling the whole effect of it could be very annoying. and that's one of the things i like about wa3- sliders, buttons, whatever, you decide about their size, you decide where to put them, you decide whether to have them at all or not..
finding the suitable eq bars in a wa2 skin have once taken months to me, sometimes it could be impossible... releasing two versions - with and without bars is a decision i think

[Jellby]

I basically agree with Atmo. Winamp is not the place to hang cool graphics on.

[flatmatt]

Methinks bh was a bit too general in his statement. At least, I hope bh knew that the rule was only for skinner.exe...

[Krynis]

I think u should do what you want to all that matters is that you have fun

[skinme!]

I think EQ-barlessness should be outlawed, except where the bars would cover a picture of the uppper torse of a female.

[binary hero]

Originally posted by flatmatt
Methinks bh was a bit too general in his statement. At least, I hope bh knew that the rule was only for skinner.exe...

so do i >_<

[xenosomething]

Originally posted by Jellby
Winamp is not the place to hang cool graphics on.

says who?

you people act as if the eq bars are what winamp is all about.

[Jellby]

If I wanted a car pic or a sexy pic or a movie poster I would skin IrfanView, and not winamp (even better: I would drive a car, watch some movie and... erm... do something sexy).

[xenosomething]

Originally posted by Jellby
If I wanted a car pic or a sexy pic or a movie poster I would skin IrfanView, and not winamp

BUT ITS NOT A PIC SKIN.....it just looks good.

the point im trying to make is that since the bars are so stupid looking and almost never used, why shouldnt i put that area to some good use for a change?

and i also remember another skin without eq bars...and everybody said it was "clever and original"....(it had the top of the eq but cut off the bars and under)

[Jellby]

Well, do what you want to do, it's your skin, skin for yourself. But a skin without eq-bars will lose usability, the fact that you don't use the eq sliders doesn't mean no-one does

As I see it, winamp is a media player with many features, a skin should change it look, but it should remain a media player with all its features. That's just my view, not the ultimate truth; you asked, I answered.

By the way, if it's cool graphics what you want to show, you can do as Atmo suggested and make a wallpaper... or use the inside of the minibrowser.

[xenosomething]

hmmm.. maybe eq bars wont be so bad if i tone down my skins.

how about i try a metal skin?.....with an lcd!

[jjpotter]

I don't know if it's a good thing to take the EQ bars out or not, but I will say this - people seem to HATE all my skins without them (except DUCKHUNT . . . actually that's probably because the rest sucked. Anyway, I never use them at all and I say if you're going to do something REALLY creative with the space, go for it.
But that's just me . . .

[skinme!]

Originally posted by xenosomething
how about i try a metal skin?.....with an lcd!

Now that's just below the belt

Fire elemental had good EQ-bars -- the melting plastic. Perhaps you could just do two versions likes Jones.

[Mr Jones]

Originally posted by skinme!
Now that's just below the belt

Fire elemental had good EQ-bars -- the melting plastic. Perhaps you could just do two versions likes Jones.

Or you could do my other favourite trick, draw the eq bars in but make them part of the background image, so they are there in appearance only. Bit like, [plug] Jeri - Back to the wall (now updated for 2.9) [/plug]

[skinme!]

Can you click and change the eq using that method, Jonesy. I assume so (just no GUI change to show, right).

[Mr Jones]

Yes, you can alter the EQ bars still, Another skin I know of had a wacky animated cursor for the bars to indicate when you were over them, and to slide them up or down kind of thing.

It's not the same by any means as having the bars, but it's close

[Jellby]

It wouldn't be so bad if you could have the eq-graph, since there would be some indication of what you're doing, but to crop the bars you have to crop the graph (and presets button), so it's a disaster.